The Hollows of Our Hearts
by MaraudingMuggle
Summary: Sirius brings his godson to visit James and Lily's graves in Godric's Hollow two years after their death. AU Sirius has custody of Harry. Please R&R! DISCLAIMER: I do not own the magic that is Harry Potter.


Sirius held the chubby little hand in his own as he weaved in and out of the headstones in the graveyard. There were a lot of names in the little cemetery in Godric's Hollow, but Sirius had memorized the location of the two names he was looking for. He would never forget. He would always remember. Always.

He walked slowly so that his godson could keep up with him as they made their way over. There were leaves all over the ground, making it hard for the little legs to walk the terrain without tripping, and Sirius didn't want Harry to fall.

"Why are we here, Siri?" Harry's bright green eyes, just the same as Lily's, peered up at him from under the blue winter hat that Sirius had shoved over the messy black hair that covered the little boys head that morning. Sirius let a sad smile fall to his lips as he looked at the three-and-a-half year old boy. It was two years this day that James and Lily had died, and Sirius had taken Harry to their graves to say hello.

"We're here to see your Mum and Da, little cub," Sirius tried to keep the extra wetness in his eyes to a minimum, but a few tears slipped over his cheeks anyways.

"Oh," Harry looked down at his feet as he and Sirius continued to walk, thinking over the information that his Godfather had told him. "Why are they here?"

"Here?" Sirius looked again into Harry's green eyes and smiled weakly at the resemblance that he had to his mother in that moment. Her eyes would become brighter whenever she was thinking, almost as if the information was running right through them.

"Why don't they live with us? And why don't they do what other mummies and daddies do? Other kids mummies tuck them in at night and their daddies play games with them."

Sirius concentrated on taking deep, even breaths, trying not to think of how much James and Lily would have loved to tuck their son in and play games with him. How much they had stolen from them by that rat Pettigrew. It wasn't fair. He crouched down in front of his godson and cradled the little boy's face in his hands. "Well, cub, that's hard to explain. I think that you'll understand it better when you're older. You see, your mummy and your daddy loved you so much that they made a really big sacrifice for you. They did everything that they could to keep you safe because they loved you so much. That's why they aren't here right now.

"But, cub, they are here at the same time. They're watching over you from up in the sky and smiling at you."

A giant smile graced Harry's face as he turned his head to the sky, "Are they on daddy's broom, Siri?"

Sirius laughed and lightly squeezed Harry's shoulders, "Yes, they are. Your mummy and daddy are way up in the sky on your daddy's broom, watching over you from the stars. Isn't that special?"

Harry nodded his tiny head excitedly before frowning slightly. "I wish they were here with us though."

Sirius nodded slower and with more thought but voiced the same opinion, "So do I."

Sirius stood back up, reclaiming his godson's hand and leading him once again to his parent's gravestones. They were close now, and Sirius could feel the pain in his chest growing in the proximity to his friend's graves and he took a deep breath. The stones were surrounding in the dead leaves that had fallen off of the trees surrounding the church and Sirius kneeled down to brush them away. Little hands found themselves next to his as Harry tried to help clean the headstones off. The toddler waddled a bit as he tottered back to his feet and he stared at the names.

"That's mummy and daddy?" Some of his messy hair slipped out from under the wool hat as Harry's head shot up to look at Sirius. The older man nodded silently at the little boy as he tried to swallow back some of his emotions to be strong for Harry.

"Can we give them flowers? Remie was telling me that girls like flowers and mummies are girls. Daddies aren't girls but I think that daddy wouldn't mind."

"No, I don't think he would, cub. Do you want me to magic some?" Sirius was aware of the shake in his voice, but hoped that Harry didn't.

"No."

Sirius looked down at the determined face surprised. It wasn't often that Harry would outright tell his Godfather no. If he did it, it was usually with purpose. "Why not?"

"I want to pick them," if the resolve in the almost four-year-old's voice wasn't enough to prove his sincerity, the decided little bob of his head was, and he started looking in the grass for flowers. Sirius watched Harry with sad eyes and turned his attention back to the grave.

"I miss you. Both of you. Its been impossibly hard trying to remember that you won't be stopping in for tea. To know that I won't be able to crash on your couch or steal your food or dance with Lily and, it's. . . It's suffocating. I look at Harry and he's so like the two of you that it hurts. He looks just like James still and it's so hard to look at him and not see you. Both of you.

"Remus misses you too. He wanted to come with me and Harry, but we thought it might be better if we went separately. It's been two years, but we are not loosening security or taking risks. We decided that I would take him alone to avoid too much paparazzi and he would stay at the house in order to keep an eye out for anything unnatural in the area. We decided to take him trick-or-treating. I remember you, Lily, telling me all about it back in fourth year before we were even friends. You're bright green eyes were glowing when you talked about. I think you may have even liked this holiday more than Christmas." Sirius turned his head to double check on Harry. The little boy was plucking some weeds out of the ground that he mistook for flowers, roots still connected. It was truly quite endearing, and Sirius could feel his heart warming at the scene.

Harry stumbled over his left foot, but quickly pushed himself back off the ground and made his way back to Sirius, thrusting his proud bouquet straight into his Godfather's chest. Sirius chuckled at the proud smile on his godson's face and gently retrieved the jumble of weeds from the tiny fist and laid them down at the base of the headstone. "Do you think that they'll like them?"

"Yeah, little cub, I think they will. They're very pretty," Sirius smiled at the mess of "flowers." He could see some three-leaf clovers and a couple dying flowery weeds. He pointed to the clovers and looked at Harry "Why'd you chose the green ones?"

Harry smiled, showing off his little white teeth, "Because they're green like my mummys eyes."

Sirius could've sworn that part of his heart broke when he heard that, and he had to clear his throat before speaking again. "Well, that's very nice, Harry."

"Mmmhmm," there was a pause before the messy-haired little boy spoke again, "Can they hear me, Siri?"

"Yes, they can. And they can see you too. Do you want to say hi?"

He nodded his head and his messy hair shook all over. He took a big breath before he started talking, "Hello mummy. I brought you some flowers. I picked some really pretty green ones because that's the color of your eyes. I like the color green, but I think that red is my real favorite. Is that bad? I hope not. They're both pretty and Siri said you have red hair so I thought it would be okay.

"I wish you were at home with me and Siri. We have a lot of fun together. He let's me play on a broom sometimes and he says that I'm a better flyer than daddy. Sorry daddy. I bet you were really good.

"I met some really nice friends recently. Siri took me over some ladies house, and I played with a boy named Neville. He was born a day before me! Isn't that so cool? We are almost the exact same age!

"Anyways, I just wanted to say hi and I love you. I hope you guys are okay and happy. Siri said you were watching me, but I don't see you anywhere. Maybe I need better glasses. Oh well. I love you. Bye mummy and daddy." Harry stepped back to Sirius' side and looked up at him, "I'm all done."

Sirius nodded and bent down to swing Harry up onto his shoulders, "I overheard you say that you can't see your mummy and daddy, cub." He started walking them towards the gate of the graveyard. He didn't want Remus to worry if they took too long.

A tiny finger harshly poked Sirius in the side of the head and he grimaced, "You said that it isn't nice to listen to other people when they are talking to someone else!"

"Yeah, I did. I only listened by accident, though, so it's okay. But, I did want to know if that was true what you said?"

He heard Harry let out a small growl before the toddler asked, "That I can't see them? Yeah, that's true."

Sirius stopped walking and pulled Harry off of his shoulders much to the little boy's protests. He set him on the ground in front of him and turned to little face to look at him. "Harry this is very very important, so I need you to listen, okay?" Harry donned a very serious expression for a three-and-a-half year old and nodded. "No matter where you go, and no matter where you are, your parents are always, always, always with you. You may not always be able to see them, but that's because they are in your heart. They will always be there, with you, no matter what. All right?"

The black hair shook with the bouncing nod and Harry whispered an okay to his Godfather. With that, Sirius held the chubby little hand in his own and weaved in and out of the gravestones in the graveyard, ready to take Harry home.

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**A/N: Hey guys! So I meant to upload this forever ago but then I never had my beta read through it and you know how that goes. Tomorrow MMAD Chapter 3 should be up so I hope you like it. It starts a bit weird, but oh well. It'll all make sense in the end. Please review! 3 - Jules**


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